Tag: UFC Tonight

Like we all expected, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s decision to ban all TRT exemptions last week has quickly been embraced by several other commissions both foreign and domestic. First, the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission followed suit, and now, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) is doing the same. As Zapp Brannigan would say, the bull’s eye has been hit and the dominos are falling like a house of cards. Checkmate.

The news was passed along by California State Athletic Commission Executive Officer Andy Foster (via MMAJunkie) earlier today, who stated:

The California State Athletic Commission fully supports the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s decision to eliminate Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) for Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) in boxing and mixed martial arts. California is a strong supporter of anti-doping efforts. As part of California’s anti-doping efforts, the Commission recently began the rulemaking process to require meeting World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standards as the only way to obtain a TUE for TRT. This standard is so high that it is an effective ban except under the most extreme circumstances. Until the rulemaking process is complete and the regulations are fully adopted, the Commission has a total ban on TRT. California remains committed to protecting the health and safety of athletes and having strict anti-doping standards is one of the ways this is accomplished.

I would have expected the CSAC’s official statement to be something more along the lines of “Chill, brah” but I guess this will do.

As more and more commissions move forward with the TRT ban, the already dire situation facing the small group of MMA fighters currently undergoing the treatment continues to grow bleaker. Fighters like Chael Sonnen, for instance…

That was the first rebuttal offered by Alistair Overeem after Dana White told UFC Tonight that the former Strikeforce heavyweight champ was “hiding” from former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. According to White — who was clearly having a bad day at the office — Overeem was offered a five-round main event fight with Dos Santos in Brazil immediately following his dominant win over Frank Mir at UFC 169 (which White was also super critical of, for some reason). After allegedly turning it down, Overeem was then offered a three-round main event with “Cigano,” but promptly turned it down as well.

“He wants nothing to do with dos Santos,” White told UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani. “He’s literally hiding from JDS…but he had no problem calling out Brock Lesnar who hasn’t fought in 2 years and who is in WWE.”

A strong accusation coming from a man usually known for making calculated, restrained statements bolstered by impeccable fact-checking (see: Pena, Julianna) if there ever was one.

What’s that, you say? Overeem is hurt, hence why he’s not ready to fight? Well I guess we might as well hear him out…

But not all is hopeless; Jones and Aldo both have their next fightslined up, and Cruz and Silva have either vacated their titles or been removed from the title picture, freeing up some space in their respective divisions. And Pettis, who underwent successful knee surgery back in November to fix a torn PCL suffered in his title-earning win over Ben Henderson at UFC 164, expects to be back in action just in time for the UFC’s annual Fourth of July card.

“The doctor said six to eight months, so I’m hoping six months,” Pettis told UFC Tonight yesterday evening. Unfortunately, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Klapper also appeared on the program (video above) and seemed slightly less positive about the lightweight champion’s recovery timetable:

In my opinion, this is about the toughest thing you can come back for. Of all the injuries that can happen to a knee, when you’re talking about the ACL or the meniscus, these are the structures in the front. It’s easy for us as surgeons to get there. When you’re talking about the back of the knee, where the arteries and nerves are, a much trickier area to get to, the results are not as terrific as they are with the structures we rebuild in the front. I would pray for him. Coming back in July? That’s really optimistic.

My God, an injured UFC champion is becoming a more frequent occurrence than a tween star meltdown these days (I’m sorry). At least Pettis has that amazing UFC healthcare to fall back on, whereas Bieber only has enough money to turn major highways into his own private race tracks. I guess it’s not easy growing up anywhere.

Keeping with the string of terrible, injury-related news, UFC Tonight also touched on a potential health issue that could further delay Michael Bisping‘s octagon return. News on that after the jump…

When he’s not busy chasing Bigfoot, obliterating pads in the gym, or supportively talking Fear Factor contestants through the subtle intricacies of chugging donkey semen, chances are that Joe Rogan is either jet setting around the world to maintain his gig as the UFC’s color commentator or destroying hecklers at one of his standup gigs. Rogan is truly the closest thing to a renaissance man that the UFC has to offer, which is probably why UFC Tonight grants him the exclusive privilege of compiling more “Best of” lists than a Buzzfeed writer born in the early 90′s.

Rogan’s first countdown focuses on the heavyweight division’s greatest knockouts of “all time.” I say “all time” with sarcastiquotes because according to Rogan, the heavyweight division contained zero knockouts of note before UFC 70 in 2007. In fact, 7 out of Joe’s 8 picks have all come within the past three years. WHY YOU GOTTA DISRESPECT BRAD KOHLER LIKE THAT, BRO(gan)?

Check out Rogan’s full list above, then join us after the jump to hear him riff on all things head kick-related.

Heading into their “Fight Night” headlining scrap at the TD Garden this weekend, it’s become apparent that both Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Chael “P.” Sonnen have made some significant changes to their training routines. The former one-time light heavyweight champion has brought in Freddie Roach to tighten up his boxing, and has improved from “punching like a girl” to “punching like a boy” according to the world-renowned trainer. Great, Freddie, now you’ve gone and sent Forrest Griffin into another Xanax-laced shame spiral. You can check a video of Shogun hitting the mitts with Freddie above.

Last night, Sonnen appeared on UFC Tonight to arrogantly cut off hosts Kenny Florian and Daniel Cormier and perform “A Poem to Shogun.” It wasn’t his best work (I like my poetry to contain far more profanity) but I’d say it went over better than his recent failed stand up bit on Def Comedy Jam. Check it out after the jump, because there’s seriously nothing better going on out there and you know it.

Back in 2010, the brain trust at CagePotato HQ compiled a list of the 25 most essential MMA Twitter feeds to follow. Boy, do we sure know how to pick ‘em. Miguel Torres, Kimbo Slice, Mayhem Miller, Reed Harris, Shane Carwin, and Strikeforce have all since faded out of relevance or gone off the deep end. Wait, Reed does what now? Are you sure? Nevermind — we’re back with an updated list of who you should really be following on Twitter, and this time we’ve actually put some thought into it instead of blindly tossing darts at our screen while simultaneously using a Shakeweight. Please note, this is 2013 and if you don’t already know you should be following Dana White, Arianny Celeste, or Ariel Helwani, you’re probably the reason Jon Jones is defending his title against Chael Sonnen this Saturday at UFC 159. Speaking of the gangster from West Linn…

Bio: “Godfather of integrity; dual masters in dominance and modesty; once outboxed Hemingway; & author of this year’s bestseller, available NOW on Amazon”

If you thought Sonnen refused to break kayfabe only when the cameras were rolling, you must not have been paying attention because his gimmick is boundless. The People’s Champion maximizes his 140-character limit with every emasculating jab at his opponents, peers, and detractors in the MMA media. The American Gangster is the only man on Twitter to follow absolutely no one, not even his own mother.

Sample Tweet: “15 – the number of letters in the word hydropneumatics as well as Chael beats Jones. #UFC159 #4/27/13″

Before we even get into the awesome that is UFC Tonight’s recent “Fighter Trivia” episode, I just want to put it out there that I will beat any of you in any game show trivia challenge. Any of you. When I was in college, the only channel my RCA 630TS television received was The Game Show Network. Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Double Dare, right down to the early pioneers of Press Your Luck, Match Game, Pyramid, and The Price is Right were at my disposal on a near 24/7 basis. When I wasn’t browned out in an alleyway looking for a jar of marmalade and bus ticket to Santa Fe, you could assume I was getting my trivia knowledge on with Brawlin’ Bob and the gang.

So you can imagine my excitement when I came across this gem of an idea Fuel TV devoted an episode of UFC Tonight to, with Ariel Helwani playing the proverbial Bob Eubanks role. The premise is simple, a group of fighters are subjected to what I assume is five rounds of trivia (there aren’t videos of all 5 rounds to confirm/deny this) covering everything from their knowledge of The Ultimate Fighter to that of pop culture. They are paired up for certain rounds, but mostly are forced to go on their own until one man is declared the winner.

After the jump: Two snippets from the show in which Florian forgets that Bisping and Evans fought at UFC 78 (along with the rest of the world) and Cruz fails to identify Bruce Springsteen by his nickname. Unforgivable, Dom.

Another Tuesday night has come and gone which means Fuel TV was the destination of choice for most MMA fans. At least it probably was, if A.) you are lucky enough to have the channel and B.) weren’t too busy watching Tosh.O or Sons of Anarchy. Now that I think of it, I’m guessing a total of four of you actually watched last night. Not to worry, Potato Nationtatersyou guys, we watched UFC Tonight and UFC Ultimate Insider for you and laboriously jotted down all the juicy news and rumors for your enjoyment. Here’s what you missed:

Speaking of UFC on Fuel 5, one half of the main event Stefan Struve attempts 4.5 submissions per 15 minutes of fighting but has 0% takedown defense. That is not a typo. He has been grounded each of the four times an opponent has attempted to take him to the canvas. I’m no expert, but isn’t that a little troubling? Maybe it’s all just a part of “Skyscraper”‘s master plan considering 16 the BJJ purple belt’s 24 victories come by way of submission. It’s kind of hard to argue with results like that.

If you are at all familiar with how Wordpress (the program that powers this site) works, then you know that there is a seemingly limitless number of categories and options to select when drafting up a given post. One of them, titled “Post Type”, provides several pre-selected categories for us to choose from when determining the content and article type of said post. However, when I attempted to select “Injury” for the umpteenth time this morning, Wordpress would simply not allow it. “I’m sorry, Jared, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” it uttered (yes, our Wordpress is self-aware). And before I knew it, my computer sprouted legs, shoved me aside, and walked out of my life forever.

What I’m getting at is, the injury curse of summer 2012 has gotten so frustrating that it is even beginning to affect the non-emotive machines, forcing me to relocate from my two bedroom brownstone to the dismal public library at which I now reside. The floor smells like piss here, and I’m pretty sure a homeless man is masturbating at a computer not ten feet away from me. Either that, or he is a big UFC fan who also just learned that Josh Koscheck has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 151 co-main event matchup with “Jake Ingleburger”, and is taking his disappointment out on his junk. In either case, this is getting hard to watch.

(Hello Quinton, Areva Mookjai here with the Thailand Lady-Boy Observer, I was just wondering if…wow, you go right after it, don’t you?)

We almost feel silly reporting on this, being that there is no way in hell this quarrel will actually be settled in the near future, but just in case you haven’t heard, Quinton Jackson and Chael Sonnen are apparently not a fan of one another, you guys. If you recall, during our thrilling interview with Page a couple of months ago, Jackson stated that he thought Sonnen was “a fool” and was tired of people asking him questions about the former middleweight title challenger on Twitter.

This is where we’d normally say something like, “Time has a way of healing all wounds,” but then of course, we wouldn’t be talking about Rampage Jackson, a man who seemingly has a gripe with everyone and everything from American fans to the UFC to driving down the correct side of a freeway. During a brief interview with MMAElite.net, Jackson aired out his dirty laundry in regards to Sonnen, claiming that he should “leave the UFC because that’s what he said he was going to do if he lost.” Also, “F*ck Chael.” While the former remark could be passed off as a simple criticism, the latter not so much: